PRINCESS THEATRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 69

PRINCESS THEATRE.

There was am extremely large aiidience at the Princess .Theatre on Saturday night, when; the weekly change of programme was sub* mitted. For gen-era! excellence and variety} the turns given would be hard to surpass. The only new artists on the programme werai Stewart and Lorraine (musicians), who made their reappearance after an absence of some months. Stewart and 1 Lorraine are a pair., of exceptionally gifted musicians, and in/ thedr performance introduce a number ofi novel instruments, the richest toned of which? . was. perhaps, the aluminium organ chimes,' -• " The death of Nelson," as played upon this instrument, being as fine a musical number, as has been heard for a- long tknie. Miss Brigh'tie Smith, a charming serio-eomio vocalist, has long established herself as a , favourite with patrons of the Princess, and her iterds, " Only the old cracked basin "' and "My little belle of Japan," the latter . being attended by beautiful lantern effects, but served to add-a few more laurels to an/ already heavy wreath. A real feature of tha excellent programme was " I love a lassie,"' as given by Mr Jock Willis and,> Miss Eileen M'Kechnie. Mt Willis has during the past few weeks made a great success of Scotch! comio songs after the style ,of Mr Harry Lauder, and manages to introduce into his items a deal oi real dry humour of the sort whioh most appeals -to the mind of a Dun- ' edin audience. And so from the firfffl " I love a lassie " proved .a great success-, the audience rising in applause at its conclusion. Miss M'Kechnie dances a. Highland fling in the most approved style, and contributes in no small manner to the suooessi of the obviously original turn. The Banvard brothers appeared again in their unique acrobatic comedy " Bumpty bumps." 1 -> The Banvards are really clever acrobats,, and their turn has seldom been excelled on\ a Dunedin stage. Vaud'e and Varna somes _ what renowned as topioal songsters, appeared 1 again with a fresh budget of local hits an 3 allusions, to the obvious delight of the audience. Opie and! Tyson appeared in a new role, as sketch artists, and introduceq a very clever sketch, " A Gentleman Tramp, with sucess. The sketch i-s good, but coulc( do with a, little clipping here and there, a$ it is rather too long for a vaudeville enter- - t-ainment. In their new role Opie and Tyson should prove a great success, as they" ar^ both clever artists, and are each gifted with; a. good voice and combination) seldom met " nowadays. F ( ranklin and Franklin,' the othei sketch artists, are very happy in their choice; of a sketch, " Flirtations " bang well adapted; to 'bring out these clever artists' best points. '_. Others iri the. programme are Claud Ovel and Lavinia^Tyson, and the excellent bio* ' gxaph pictures fill in a pleasant interval. • Altogether, the programme is as -good a on* -, as could be desired, and reflects great credit both' on the Eullera and, fa*ii contributing artist*,